Missed opportunities cost Calgary Flames in loss to Minnesota Wild

ST. PAUL — After the morning skate, Bob Hartley had gone all Bridal Fair when pumped about the prospect of edging above the .500 mark for the first time this season.

“It’s time,” declared the Calgary Flames’ boss, “for the flirting to be over.

“Like, let’s get married. Let’s go to church.”

Well, bridesmaids again …

Failing in umpteen chances to add to a slender one-goal lead, they paid the price, Zach Parise, magnificent on the night, slotting a backhand up and in 27 seconds into overtime to break Calgary hearts 2-1.

Related

A goal midway through the first period by Alex Tanguay, his sixth of the season, looked set to hold up the entire way as stop-gap goaltender Joey MacDonald, filling in beyond all expectations for the injured Miikka Kiprusoff, was pitching a perfect game.

That is, until Devin Setoguchi retrieved the puck after a shot-block from Mark Giordano and calmly fed a wide-open Jason Zucker for an easy redirect at 15:41 of the third period.

Giordano was then caught gloving the puck ahead, diving to clear away from Parise. But MacDonald, stacking the pads to twice deny Wild defenceman Jared Spurgeon at the side of the neck, desperately whacking away to end the game in regulation. But Parise in OT didn’t miss.

The Flames could only regret many, many chances to put the Wild away.

They received an absolutely gift-wrapped opportunity with an elbowing major to rookie Charlie Coyle for launching a shoulder into Matt Stajan’s eating area near the 15-minute mark of the second period.

Not only could the power play not generate a goal, it was held shot-less. A mighty difficult thing to do considering the five minutes with which to work.

Not so very long afterwards, they squandered another glorious chance to put the matter beyond doubt, early in the third, killing a penalty of all things. Stajan was sprung on a breakaway only to have Wild goaltender Niklas Backstrom hold fast and somehow keep the puck from crossing the goal-line.

Then, in a shocking bit of deja-deja vu, the Flames couldn’t capitalize on a four-minute high-sticking major to Minny rookie defenceman Jonas Brodin for clipping Curtis Glencross in the chops in the game’s closing 10 minutes.

Given that dispiriting 3-1 loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday, the Minnesotans came out surprisingly uninspired, Tanguay shaking free long enough to ding a shot off Backstrom’s mask inside the opening minute. That might’ve woken up Backstrom but it did little to shake his pals out of their stupor.

So, almost by default, Calgary assumed a deserved lead at 10:18. Obviously having played a ton of T-ball during his formative years, Tanguay bunted a hovering puck into the net after Backstrom had made a total hash of a Jay Bouwmeester point shot, hot-potato-ing it up in the air for No. 40 to aim at and swat.

At that point, shots favoured the visitors 8-1.

As the period progressed, though, the Wild began to shake out the cobwebs and test MacDonald. The biggest save from a Calgary standpoint though, came courtesy Mark Giordano, sweeping the puck off the goal-line after Zach Parise — already more noticeable than he had been both occasions the teams collided in Calgary this season — had swept wide to backhand the puck behind a stretching, straining MacDonald from in close.

Initially, the goal was given but replays overturned the decision, correctly.

The Minnesota push began into the early stages of Period 2, captain Mikko Koivu squeezing a shot between MacDonald and the near post and off iron inside the first minute with Stajan incarcerated for interference. Later, during another Wild power play, Koivu blasted one that deflected off a shot-blocking Bouwmeester and cracked the underside of the crossbar.

The Flames wind up this brief road swing on Thursday at the Pepsi Center in Denver against Hartley’s old employers, the Colorado Avalanche.